KUMEYAAY CULTURE

The KUMEYAAY American Indians have lived in the greater San Diego County area for some 12,000 years. Hopefully, the KUMEYAAY HISTORY information portal about the Kumeyaay and their unique indigenous culture will help Web visitors understand, RESEARCH and appreciate the ageless culture, language, music, art of the Kumeyaay, San Diego's original California people.

The webmaster found the following information especially interesting to learn about Kumeyaay culture from expert researchers. One of the best tips would be to visit the OFFICIAL KUMEYAAY TRIBAL WEB SITES and click on their History, language and Culture areas.

"For 10 millennia before the Spanish and other European settlers arrived in California, the Kumeyaay Indian Nation lived in the area now divided into San Diego and Imperial Counties and Baja Norte. Although this nation of original inhabitants has been called Southern Diegueño, Diegueño-Kamia, Ipai-Tipai, and Mission Indians, the people prefer to be known as Kumeyaay...".

"This ethnographic overview focuses on the Kumeyaay of southern San Diego County. It is based upon the detailed descriptions and research findings of several important ethnohistorical and ethnographic studies. Includes Subsistence, Housing & Technology, Settlements & the Seasonal Round, Kumeyaay Agriculture, Social Organization, Trade, Spiritual Life...".

"In the United States the language and people are generally spelled 'Kumeyaay' and were formerly known as 'Diegueno' (the so-called "Mission Indians" of Southern California used to be identified by the name of the nearest Catholic mission), while in Mexico, the language and people are spelled Kumiai and are sometimes referred to as Tipai, Ipai, or, confusingly, Cochim.

(The actual Cochimi language has been extinct since the 1800's, but non-native Mexicans have confused the two groups for centuries.) Today Kumiai is spoken by about 300 people on both sides of the Mexican-US border...".

KUMEYAAY HERITAGE

JAMUL INDIAN VILLAGE web site is beginning to build a large article on KUMEYAAY HERITAGE, including Language, California Tribal College, Body Art, Baskets, Church and Cemetery, Pottery, Games, Singing and Dancing, Rock Art and their Traveling Kumeyaay Exhibit -- check out Jamul's official Kumeyaay web site for great information about Kumeyaay heritage and indigenous culture of the Kumeyaay Nation.

The Kumeyaay Nation of Indigenous peoples are part of the HOKAN language group of North America. Please review the following Kumeyaay and Yuman cultural resource links to learn more about the Kumeyaay bands of San Diego County and Baja Norte, Mexico.

BOOKS NATIVE AMERICAN CALIFORNIA INDIAN LIBRARYA wide variety of books on the aboriginal Native American Indians indigenous to the Southern California, southwestern Arizona, and northwest Baja California, Mexico indigenous tribes of North America. Includes top 10 best books written about the Diegueno Kumeyaay Nation.

YUMAN Family -- An important linguistic family whose tribes before being gathered on reservations occupied an extensive territory in the extreme south west portion of the United States and north Lower California, including much of the valley of Colorado River, the lower valley of the Gila, and all of extreme south California....

MARICOPA -- An important Yuman tribe which since early in the 19th century has lived with and below the Pima and from about lat. 35° to the mouth of Rio Gila, south Arizona. In 1775, according to Garcés, their rancherias extended about 40 miles along the Gila from about the month of the Hassayampa to the Aguas Calientes, although Garcés adds that "some of them are found farther down river." They call themselves Pipatsje, 'people,' Maricopa being their Pima name....

COCOPA (ko'-ko-pa). A division of the Yuman family which in 1604-05 lived in nine rancherias on the Rio Colorado, five leagues above its mouth...According to Heintzelman, in 1856, the tribe was formerly strong in numbers and could muster 300 warriors; their total number was estimated by Fray Francisco Garcés in 1775-76 at 3,000, but there are now only 800 in north Lower California, in the valley of the Rio Colorado. The Cocopa were reputed to be less hostile than the Yuma or the Mohave, who frequently raided their villages; nevertheless they were sufficiently war-like to retaliate when necessary....

CAJUENCHE -- A Yuman tribe speaking the Cocopa dialect and residing in 177576 on the east bank of the Rio Colorado below the mouth of the Gila, next to the Quigyuma...and into central south California, about lat. 33° 08', where they met the Comeya. At the date named the Cajuenche are said to have numbered 3,000 and to have been enemies of the Cocopa (Garcés, Diary, 443, 1900). Of the disappearance of the tribe practically nothing is known, but if they are identical with the Cawina, or Quo-kima....